How do I get the SPDIF input to work on my X-fi Extreme Audio

[JCLH]

Hi,

For some time now I have been strugling to get my SPDIF input to work. Let me explain.

I have a Creative X-fi Extreem Audio (PCI-E). This card has a SPDIF input. I also have a Sony BDP-350S Blu-Ray player. This player has also got a SPDIF output. I thought I could just connect the two together and get dolby digital, but that seems to be more difficult. I found out I need a decoder to decode the raw stream into dolby digital. It is this last step that hase me troubled. I looked in the forum but can't find the answer. I tried AC3filter but I don't think it is beeing used when I try to play a Blu-Ray disk. What am I dooing wronge. Is it even posible what I want?

Please help!

[yoda313]

Not if you plan to use the computer as a digital amp no. The spdif input is mainly for file transfers of digital audio. It has to be reencoded later, not on the fly.

Check out the posts by nelson37 on the topic.

THere are adapters you can get for the pc that are essentially digital amps. But they have to say they can play realtime audio from a digitial source.

You are much better off getting a cheap basic 5.1 dedicated amplifier for surround sound playback. Than you can forget the computer all together.

Quality units can be had from the 150.00 USD price range and higher. If you're really on a budget you might be able to a cheap home-theater-in-a-box set for under a 100.00 USD. Just be sure it has FIBER OPTIC inputs for external sources - though don't expect it to have dts and absolutely won't have hdmi and dolby true hd support - those are on the upper mid level amps and are trickling down to the mid range (200.00 is what I consider lower mid-range - USD currency of course).

[Nelson37]

I'm not sure I understand the problem.

This should work, the SPDIF input can, in fact, be used just like a standard audio input for playback to speakers.

I did not specifically check for maintaining 5.1 in this fashion but am pretty sure it is, with the proper speakers, directly connected to the card. The X-fi IS a Dolby Digital decoder.

What type of speakers are being used, have you muted all other inputs and specifically enabled SPDIF inputs?

The PC is not ideal for a digital amp, is far more costly, and probably induces additional noise into the equation, but it IS possible to use it this way.

The card can definitely decode in real-time, as the optical audio was the only audio input while my capture card recorded an MPG with 2-channel sound. No audio input to the capture card and no connection from the capture card to the audio card. I did not expect this to work and was surprised.

Could also monitor the decoded audio thru headphones or speakers.

I Know you can use pass-thru to a digital amp and maintain 5.1. What I am not sure about is whether SPDIF-in connected to 5.1 speakers thru the Analog connectors on the card will maintain 5.1, through definitely it will play stereo at a minimum. I just didn't have a 5.1 speaker setup with PC connections when I was testing this.

I don't recall if AC3Filter was needed for this, it was working after installing AC3Filter.